Todd Stroger, President of the county board hinted that he would veto the measure, citing the gateway drug theory.  Until Stroger signs the measure it will not take effect, and the areas that it will apply to are unincorporated parts of Cook County so it is not going to decriminalize cannabis in the city of Chicago, but it is a step in the right direction.

The vote was 12-3 in favor of allowing officers the choice to issue tickets, however one of the voters against the measure stated that they felt that giving officers the choice to issue tickets would lead to more discrimination in arrests.  According to news reports the sponsor, Commissioner Earlean Collins is behind this because her grandson was recently arrested for a small amount of cannabis and she feels that arrests like those are clogging up the jails.

The Illinois Chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws supports Cook County’s efforts to ticket cannabis offenders, the problem with the cannabis decriminalization ordinance is that it allows the officers to use their discretion and can issue an arrest or a ticket.  This will lead to cases of discriminatory arrests and a better policy would be to simply issue the ticket and allow the officer to arrest the subject only if they have a warrant or are breaking some other law.  Cannabis should be legal and regulated like alcohol and tobacco and until that happens ticketing cannabis offenders is much better than arresting them, however as long as the market is still illegal problems will occur.  Until the underground market is brought above the table and legal, cannabis prohibition will bring about the same problems that alcohol prohibition did.

Listen to what Dan Linn had to say on WGN radio here:
http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/stevejohnnie/wgnam-stevejohnnie-danlinn-uncut090729a,0,731478.mp3file

...and here:
http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/stevejohnnie/wgnam-stevejohnnie-danlinn-uncut090729b,0,797015.mp3file